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Article: `Owning Jolene,' `Country of Strangers' small gems
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- January 15, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Early on in Shelby Hearon's broadly comic novel Owning Jolene
(Knopf, $17.95), as 7-year-old Jolene's mother is kidnapping her and
sneaking her off to one in an unending series of Texas border towns
with cookie-cutter houses so her father cannot find them, the little
girl is given her orders.
"You're in this Dutch boy blonde wig and blue suit and they're
looking for a little girl, okay? When I hand over our boarding
passes, you are going to grab your wienie. It's a subliminal trick,
see? You grab your wienie and so you're immediately not who they're
looking for, and holler, `I need to tinkle.' " Thus demonstrating her
cardinal rule: that the best way to hide is to be conspicuous.
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